I Think I have a fever
by ZukiYuki
Summary: Luke's ecstatic about his week at alien weaponary development camp, and sicne he needed a tester, he got to bring his best friend along to. The problem is Luke keeps getting warm fuzzy feelings. He must be coming down with a fever. xLydex
1. I don't Own

I don't own SJA, or any of the characters in this (apart from those other than the ones in the TV series)

This contains BL and all that mush so BEWARE haters :] Review if you like please .!


	2. Ecstatic

Luke was ecstatic.

"Can I go Mum?" He asked, hopping off his bed and skipping to his bedroom door. He bedroom was, of course, pristine, books neatly stacked in spare spaces, several of his mechanical experiments sat half done on the shelf above his desk. At least his room being untidy wasn't an excuse for him not to go.

"Luke, I'll be worried about you for the whole week, after that incident with the Zatang, I'm not sure I can handle that right now." Sarah Jane called from her attic. Luke raced up the stairs, clutching the electronic chip in his hand even tighter.

"Oh mum I'll be fine, it says they take safety measures." He pleaded further, coming to stand next to her desk, which she was perched on, rifling through some files. She sighed, irritation displayed as her brow twitched.

"Let me have a look at it." She demanded, holding out her hand, and Luke eagerly placed the chip into it. "How do I…?" she questioned, turning it round for inspection. Luke placed his fingers round it, already having memorised the exact location of the activation button and pressed down. The chip began cased in light, and an electronic browsing brochure illuminated the dim attic. "Thanks." Sarah Jane said under her breath, reading through the brochure. Luke watched for 708 milliseconds until he got bored and started fidgeting from excitement, taking to walking around the room and playing with some of the alien equipment nervously.

After he'd successfully help the RED organisation in their development of a highly advanced alien defence weaponry system, he'd been invited to their YWDT (Youth Weapon Development and Testing) week, which was held once every ten years. Most people their would be in their late teens, and were the children of highly placed RED members, but Luke had been granted special access. He saw no problem with his attendance at all, apart from the small issue that lay at the back of his throat.

"Luke, this all looks very much like something I'd love for you to attend but," Luke knew what she was picking up on "You don't have a testing Partner to go with you, and it says they need to be preselected." Luke sighed, leaning against the central pillar.

"I know." He sighed, closing his eyes from the disappointment. Sarah Jane came up and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. He felt about 5% better thanks to that.

"Maybe you could find someone to be your partner?" She suggested. That just made him feel 2% worse, it was such an empty hope. He didn't know anyone from RED who could attend with him, and he didn't know anyone else who was involved with alien activity like him.

Wait, what was he saying? Of course he knew people who were involved in alien activity. He felt a smile pull at his lips.

"Don't worry Mum, I know just the person."

"So will you come?" He asked, flanking the shoulder of his best friend Clyde.

"Hello, you're asking me to join you at some ridiculous alien weapon convention, which will probably have a lot of freak, scary things and lots of guns everywhere," Luke pouted, "of course I'm coming, when do we go?" Clyde grinned, and Luke automatically smiled back at Clyde's warm face.

"This weekend."

"I'll go pack then, see yah tomorrow at…?" He left a gap for Luke to answer.

"Come round here at 10." Luke answered automatically.

"Cool, bye then." Cylde said, turning round and walking off waving. Luke watched after him, a faint smile still on his face as he watched Clyde go. That shirt fitted Clyde really well, Luke could see the exact shape of his strong chest, and could accurately calculate the volume of his muscles from where he was standing. Hmm, he was having thoughts about Clyde's body again, something he found unique to Clyde. He shrugged it off, it was probably normal.


	3. Welcome to the House

Clyde blushed furiously.

"It's so embarrassing." He muttered, his dark cheeks flaring. Luke felt all warm inside just watching him, his temperature increasing by a whole three degrees. He paused momentarily to consider this, the temperature increase was unusual, he hoped he wasn't coming down with a fever.

"It's not that bad, here, let me take it so Rani doesn't see you with it." Luke smiled, taking the flowery pink suitcase from Clyde, who'd stated it belonged to his neighbour.

"Cheers." Clyde grinned, a phrase Luke understood meant thanks.

"Wow Clyde, that's a really…nice suitcase." Sarah Jane struggled with her words. She took it from Luke with a strange look on her face, like she was reconsidering letting her son go off with a boy who owned a flowery suitcase. Luke couldn't understand why, but gave Clyde's excuse anyway.

"It's Clyde's neighbour's, since he couldn't find one." Sarah Jane relaxed.

"Oh that explains it." She smiled and squeezed it in the boot of her car next to Luke's plain navy one.

"Heh, at least it looks cool next to Luke's" Clyde grinned, nudging Luke's shoulder, which Luke felt tingle at the contact, and his temperature shoot up again. Oh dear, he hoped the fever wasn't infectious.

"I'm not sure cool is the right word for it." Luke retorted, attempting to put sarcasm in his voice, he needed to practise that. Clyde just laughed good naturedly and thumped him on the back as his shoulders heave. More tingles.

"This is a bit Harry Potter isn't it?" Clyde demanded as he and Luke faced the Train station Pillar.

"It does pose a similar situation yes, except we have suitcases instead of trolleys." Luke nodded.

"I'm sure you could get a trolley somewhere, get one of those and give you glasses and someone's going to start flying."

"Or a car." Luke suggested, since in Harry potter it was the car that flew, or the owl, or the broomsticks. Hmm, maybe he should reread the series to see if anyone could simply make themselves levitate.

"Come on, let's at least try this." Clyde sighed, grabbing Luke's wrist and tugging him forward. Oh god, there was an explosion of tingles now, numbing Luke's wrist and hand. He let himself be pulled to and through the pillar, temporarily lost in the dark as they went through. He felt safe enough those, knowing he was with Clyde. Then they were through.

"Damn, and I was expecting a giant steam train and hooting owls."

They were standing on the lawn of a grand Manor House, clusters of tastefully placed trees scattered themselves amongst the neatly trimmed grass, and there were arrays of wildflowers allowed to grow long the sides of paths. The faint sound of water came from the left hand of the house. The House itself was delicately decorated with climbing plants, honeysuckle grow around the Balcony fencing, and Ivy clinged to the sides of the white stone the House was constructed form. Everything had a very Art nouveau feel to it, but the cleanliness of the Grounds and house gave it all a modern look.

"Wow, that's one nice house." Clyde breathed, grinning.

"I think that's where we're staying."

"Wow, no kidding."

"Oh and Clyde?" Luke said, looking down at his hand.

"Mhmm?"

"You're still holding my wrist." Luke said blankly. He was hastily released, so he smiled at Clyde to show him gratitude. Clyde went red and looked away. Oh dear, Luke thought, I hope he's not getting my fever.

"Welcome to the House Sirs." Bowed the older butler, as the younger one who had showed them up the steps to the house departed. Luke could hear Clyde giggling quietly behind him, he looked round, his fringe flopping over his eyes at the action, settling at a 76 degree angle.

"It's just all so… posh." Clyde giggled, red cheeked. Luke beamed back, finding Clyde's amusement both odd and fascinating; he studied the changes in his companion. His pulse had increased, and he was acting more relaxed, his shoulders a few millimetres lower, though they were now shaking slightly.

"Earth to Luke?" Came Clyde's slightly raised voice.

"Sorry." Luke smiled, turning back to focus on the Tour they were being given by the elderly butler.


	4. Mutal intimidation

Clyde could practically hear his heart beating audibly, hah, a week alone with Luke and that stupidly cute smile. Why had he agreed to this? Oh that was right, because Luke had looked so down trodden and pouty when he'd started to say no. Clyde just thanked whoever was up there for Luke's socially issues and inability to process emotions all that well. He flexed his hands, which were still warm from holding Luke's. No, he wasn't having these weird feelings for Luke, no sir, he was the comical legend, he wasn't going all mushy over some dorky geek.

"It is kind of scary how big it is I suppose." Luke _giggled _as they were led up a grand staircase. Oh god, Clyde would have that sound in his ears all day now. Not for any reason apart from that it was catchy, of course.

"Just try not to get lost Luke." He replied, forcing his tone to be neutral.

"Don't worry, I've already memorised the down stairs lay out and furniture arrangements. I'll be fine." Luke smiled all cutesy like. Oh god, not the cute geeky talk, Clyde couldn't get his head around what made It sound so… he was not going to put the word attractive, not if it killed him. It sounded extremely… interesting, and showed of Luke's intelligence nicely. Then Luke started off going into an excited ramble on how amazing the central Living space's dimensions were for some reason related to golden ratios and all, and Clyde just gave up and sighed, watching the younger boy's sweet little tangent through glazed eyes.

"And this is the Dormitory, the regulars who arrived yesterday will be up in a few minutes, please settle in prior to their arrival." The butler ordered in a monotone. Way more boring than Luke's cute perky voice.

"Yeah Yeah." Clyde muttered as the butler shut the door.

"Oh my god!" squeaked Luke, wide eyed. What? Thought Clyde looking round to see what the geek was squeaking about now. "They have Siro Pods, oh but these are alien, how were they allowed to use these? Oh but the programming for these is so advanced, even by alien standards, did you know the bend is created from simply overly energised air atoms?" Luke rambled. Clyde didn't mind though, he just felt a warm rush as Luke gushed to him about beds. Man if he got this excited talking about beds, Clyde wandered what he'd be like _in _on.

Oh Clyde! Gross! Now he was having perverted thoughts. He turned away from Luke and looked for a bed to slump on, but there were simply small metal rectangles with spacey looking Bedside tables next to them. Great.

"Clyde, I'm sorry if I'm being boring." Came a soft voice from his shoulder. Clyde froze for a moment, registering the position of Luke's head in relation to him. He sucked in breath, oh great idea Clyde, now all he could smell was the soft, almost floral scent that clung to Luke. He could stop himself breathing in after that, leaning back so he was nearly touching Luke's shoulder.

"S'alright." He mumbled his mind foggy.

He heard a bang and Luke jumped away from him in shock, and Clyde consequently stumbled, feeling a rush of blood to his head, he tried to regain some sense into himself. Had he just sniffed Luke? Oh god. He rubbed his forehead then looked up to look for the bang-causing er… thing.

Seven or so Males were gathered by the door they'd just come through, all aged a couple of years about Luke and Clyde's fourteen years. Half of them just looked plain geeky, and not in a cute, dippy dorky way like Luke, more in a grubby, I never bother washing way. The other half were composed of pure muscle, their brawn making Clyde feel intimidated even while their huge biceps were still. Clyde could pretty much label them there and then, he could pick out who were the 'developers' (geeks) and who were the 'Testers' (muscled dudes). And damn he needed to get new nicknames for the labels, ones which didn't sound so erotic. Back to being sick minded it seemed.

"Who the hell are these brats?" Boomed a leather jacketed Weapon tester (oh wait, Clyde just managed to make that sound sick to).

"Obviously they're the two out of organisation boys who came for the week." Explained a neatly dressed geek. Why was Clyde only noticing how they were dressed, god he felt like such a… girl.

"Um, I'm Luke and this is Clyde." Luke voice up, despite the rude welcoming. Way to be a brave little boy Luke.

"Like we care." Smirked another gun tester (still too sick sounding) shouldering past Luke along with the other older Males.

I shuffled over to Luke who'd plastered a small fake smile on his face which had just gotten a little bit smaller.

"Ignore them Luke."

"Hell they're so puny!" someone laughed.

"Actually we're both taller than average for our age." Luke voiced, pouting slightly, oh not the cute pout, how could they be mean to that!

"Ohh looks like baby is touchy." Laughed another Male. Had they just called him baby? Clyde could think of a lot of connotations for that, but he felt to scared to point that out.

"Actually I was simply stating fact but it seems you only got here because of your family. Come on Clyde, let's go." Luke added in a huff, caging Clyde's hand and dragging him out of the room.

Wow, that was impressive Luke, I never knew you had it in you, Clyde thought appreciatively.

"Thanks." Luke panted, oops he'd spoken aloud. Clyde only just noticed the flush in Luke's cheek's and the small rising and falling of his chest from the stress.

"that was really-" he started, impulse to praise Luke more.

"Scary." Luke finished for him, collapsing suddenly on his chest. Clyde paralysed as Luke's weight rested on him, oh god he was so close, Luke's glossy, soft hair was brushing his neck, his smell was practically mauling him.

"Did you see those guys?" He panted from Clyde's chest.

"Yeah they looked freakishly strong." Clyde agreed, thinking of the stupidly muscled arms of the other Male's.

"and smart." Whispered Luke from his chest. Oh, it seemed Luke had been intimidated by them to, though for an entirely different reason. Instinctually Clyde rested his hands on Luke's back and hair, feeling a rush as he felt the heat coming off them.

"They ain't got nothing on your alien geek freak." He comforted him affectionately.

"Gee thanks Clyde."

"No problem."

"Uhh, that was meant to be sarcastic." Clyde could see Luke blush, aww, he was still having difficulty with that.

"Don't worry, so was I."


	5. Do we hug to much?

Luke felt tired, an emotion he never felt comfortable with being, but he registered that Clyde was uncomfortable with having him clinging to his T-shirt. Forcing himself off it, he rubbed his face and leant against the wall outside of their dormitory. This would be a rough week he could tell.

"You're not still nervous are you?" Clyde asked, leaning on the wall space next to him. Luke had to check whether he intended that phrase to mock Luke, but the genuine sincerity on his face suggested not.

"Maybe a bit." Luke nodded, he felt himself flush at the confession, they had been awfully… smart looking, he'd been worried he'd be seen as stupid next to them. But Clyde hadn't thought so. Luke smiled, as long as Clyde thought so, Luke was happy. He tilted his head, considering that illogical conclusion, surely it was better to have the majority think so. But Clyde was his friend so it was natural for him to value his opinion more highly. It made perfect sense.

Everything had made sense until he felt a strong hand on his hair tugging at his head, which completely jumbled up his thoughts. He came to rest against Clyde's cool chest, locked securely in a set position. He felt something press against his head, and the arm around his back tighten. He breathing became shallow, he felt an increasingly familiar rush of warmth coming to his cheeks, and tingles running all over him like electricity. He listened to the steady sound of Clyde's breathing, it wasn't as erratic as his, it had a strong regularity to it. He closed his eyes and leant against the chest supporting him, focusing on nothing but the warmth that was spreading through him and the cool breath brushing his forehead.

"Better?" came Clyde's voice, which was hoarse. Luke didn't want to break the silence, but he knew not replying would be odd.

"Mmm, yeah." He mumbled, turning in so he could place a palm on Clyde's T-shirt to get closer to the warmth next to him. A faint realisation scratched at his mind, this was the second weird embrace he'd had with Clyde within a 10.78 minute period. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

"Is this okay Clyde?" He breathed, tightening his grip slightly. He heard a slightly strained moan, and was worried he'd upset Clyde.

"It's more than okay." Clyde replied, his voice still rough. Luke frowned, that was a mixed answer, more suggested a negative answer, but okay seemed positive. "That's a good thing." Clyde added, and this time Luke could hear the smile in his voice. Luke smiled to automatically; rubbing is nose against the warmth. He wasn't sure of the name for the action but it felt so natural he let himself carry it out anyway. Maybe he could look it up when he next had the chance.

They stayed like that for a few moments, and Luke wondered why more people didn't do this more often, it felt so warm and safe. Perhaps other people weren't as warm as Clyde. Then he started worrying (something that came naturally to him) what if he wasn't warm either, what if he was making Clyde cold. But Clyde had said he'd liked it. It was weird how solutions to his worries came so quickly when he was holding Clyde.

Suddenly Luke felt himself rushing, rushing through the cold air away from Clyde's heat, he moaned in complaint at being ripped away so hastily, but he soon saw why. The group of older Males were backing out of the room, laughing amongst themselves. Luke looked at Clyde, who's face looked strained. A feeling of insecurity started to creep over him again, the intimidation from the older boys was beginning to wrap itself around Luke again. Against his will Luke let out a whimper, and cursed himself for it. Now it was 32% more likely that the older boys would pick on him. Why was he so powerless, he'd fought aliens before, large, clawed, scary aliens, Why were these guys so different?

Her felt something warm lock into his fingers; he looked down to see Clyde's fingers entwined with his. Luke vaguely got the feeling that this was a gesture used amongst people who were close, but the suddenly feeling of safety that rushed over him dismissed it. He rubbed his thumb on Clyde's Palm to convey his gratitude, and caught Clyde's smile as he moved in front of their joint hands, blocking it from the older Males' sight.

"How are the toddlers doing then?" Leered the large male who'd just come out of the door.

"We'll probably have to show them to the session." Complained a clever looking Male, who slunk his arm around the other Male's arm and joined their hands. Oh, maybe it was a more common gesture than Luke had thought.

"Just follow us brats." Smirked the Male, walking off, joined by the hand to the other one. The other Older boys followed on after them, giving little attention to Luke or Clyde.

"Let's go." Nodded Clyde, who tightened his grip on Luke's hand and tugged him along after them, sending another set of tingles down Luke's arm. Luke was beginning to get the feeling he knew what the tingles were, but couldn't quite place a name on them.


	6. Sleepy head

Clyde heard Luke squeak beside them as they looked around the room. This really did look like Luke's idea of heaven, one whole wall dedicated to books neatly sorted on shelves, and rows of work benches, some shiny and clear, others stacked high with metal bits. They were just hunks of metal and wire to Clyde but to Luke, it seemed they were a whole new world.

"They have matter convertors! And thought triggered temporal sensors! And-" the stream of babble continued like that, and Clyde just sighed, not sure whether he was exasperated at Luke's over enthusiasm or just glad Luke was settling in. Clyde was still holding Luke's hand, but since Luke hadn't seemed to of noticed he held on just a little bit longer, a cheeky grin on his face at getting away with it.

"Right you lot," Came a deep voice, Clyde watched as a mean faced forty or so year old Man stormed into the room, a proud RED patch on his black military wear, "Testers please come here for your basic safety talk, and developers go and have your briefing with Claire." He instructed, gesturing to a blonde female who had appeared at his side. Clyde gave Luke's hand an encouraging squeeze then had to let it go, as he went to shuffle his way into the group of six foot Males gathered in a semi-circle. He felt incredibly… short.

The safety talk was as boring as it would have been at one of those little kid scout camps, though Clyde actually bothered to pay attention as he was showed the basics on handling your average gun. Average gun being a freeze ray with the power to crumble the whole building. The safety talk on how to clip on your helmet paled next to that. Clyde looked round to check on Luke, and grinned as he spotted him drooling over a pile of metal he was being talked through. That kid was so predictable.

After two hours of safety talks, handling instructions and health warnings, they were allowed to go and join their partners who'd been allowed to start work over an hour ago. Clyde hopped onto a stool next to Luke and rested an elbow on the desk, facing him.

"Watcha making?" he grinned, looking at the circuit board Luke was fiddling with.

"Mmn, basic instructive reaction programming." Luke mumbled, using a pair of mini scissors to cut something. Clyde blinked for a few seconds, trying to think of an intelligent way to respond, but had to fall back on basic questions.

"So… what does it do?" He started, then felt a shock run through him as Luke placed a thin, pale finger to his lips.

"It will do something amazing if you let me concentrate." Luke smiled; withdrawing his finger and returning to his… err, 'fiddling'. Clyde sighed dramatically, though his lips were still tingling from Luke's touch, and slumped on the desk. Oh dear, he had nothing to do but stare intently at Luke. What a shame. He watched the alien genius as he worked diligently only the board, not really acknowledging Clyde's existence, but Clyde would forgive him as it meant he could just watch him with no interruptions. Watching Luke's systematic actions made him kind of tired though, he could feel himself drifting off next to Luke. Great, he was going to have so much trouble sleeping tonight. But he couldn't be bother to keep his eyes open. Just a few minutes.

* * *

Clyde twitched, he felt something tingling over his skin. If that was a spider, he was going to scream. Ugh, just the thought of one of those on his face forced his eyes open. It wasn't a spider, but the sight shocked him nearly as much.

"Luke, what the _**hell**_?" He demanded, as he watched Luke purse his lips again, then look at his face and stop. Luke sat up, removing his head from next to Clyde's.

"Oh, I was just measuring your reactions, seeing how much I had to blow on your face to wake you up." He said innocently. Clyde growled.

"Can't anyone nap for five minutes around here?" He demanded, dragging himself off the table, for a moment there he had thought Luke was going to… well, you know.

"Sure, but three hours is another question."

"Three _hours_?"

"Looks like someone had some beauty sleep to catch up on." Luke grinned cheekily. Clyde blinked, processing the information. Yep, trying to get to sleep would be _hell_. He looked down at the desk.

"Wow, that'd progressed." He said, indicating the old circuit board, which was now in the shape of a sphere, blue light lines zip zapping over its metal surface.

"Yeah I finished a little early so I used the base designs to make a few copies." Luke gestured to a pile of spheres. Clyde whistled, wow that was a lot of balls. Oh no, sick thoughts. "You get to test them tomorrow morning when we start our new project." Oh great, Clyde got to test Luke's balls. He thumped his head against the desk. "what are you doing?"

"Oh just killing myself, nothing much."


	7. Brush Brush Brush :

The day had gone quickly. This was a phrase Luke felt was appropriate, although he never understood it (time flow never changed, it was constant. Unless of course you had time lord technology, but unfortunately even RED couldn't get their hands on _that_) he had heard Clyde muttering it as they were told to go for an early night. The day had gone quickly, in the sense he'd been less aware of the passing of time, during their working session he'd been absorbed on working on the energy shock spheres, getting their diameter to be exactly 1cm each had taken most of his focus. Time had stopped. Another phrase he believed was appropriate, and though it was nothing like when he'd been caught in the time loop with the trickster, he had been less aware of the time flow. Clyde must of felt similarly as he'd been asleep. That memory pricked up the corners of Luke's mouth.

"I _don't _snore!" Clyde insisted angrily as they climbed the stairs.

"True, at this precise moment you are not snoring, but between 11:08 and 2:16 you definitely spent at least on hour snoring." Luke contradicted, grinning at the thrill of proving his friend wrong. Friend.

He was starting to question that term for Clyde, did Friends hug like that? Did they hold hands? Luke was extremely confused by all of it, he'd never read any books stating the ground of definition for 'Friend', and unfortunately his plans to read the dictionary were for next week. He could feel a pout coming to his lips as the heavy fog of confusion set down on him.

"Oh come on, you can't be upset just because I won't admit that I snore." Clyde demanded, stopping at the top of the stairs.

"Oh no, different reason, and anyway, you just did." Luke smiled wistfully, unable to not giggle as Clyde stormed up the next flight of stairs in a sulk. Luke watched him, he'd preferred Clyde's jeans as to the combat trousers he'd been given, they'd showed off his… rear a lot better. Luke got the feeling again that his admiring of Clyde's physique was not normal. But then again, what aspect of his life was?

* * *

"_Brush brush brush, brush brush brush_." Luke sang, glad that the older Males had beaten them up the stairs and had already left the bathroom.

"Dude, what the heck are you singing?" Clyde asked, leaning against the sink, wearing nothing but sweatpants. Oh, and Luke supposed he was wearing boxers underneath, at least he thought so. Maybe he should ask.

"It was on the milk teeth advert; it said you had to sing it while you brushed your teeth to make them sparkly clean." He explained smugly, not able to understand why Clyde _wasn't _singing. At least he'd get to say 'I told you so' if Clyde didn't grow up to have sparkly white teeth when he was older, a phrase Luke had learnt meant victory for him.

"You realise that advert is aimed at children. Like, four year olds." Clyde said, eyebrow quirked. Luke watched the change, Clyde looked so… Luke would think of an adjective later to describe Clyde's expression. He'd looked so… interesting.

"I am under eighteen; I feel I still fall into that category." Luke sniffed, going back to brushing his teeth, this time silently. He noticed in the mirror that his cheeks were burning a bright crimson colour. "And don't tease me; I'm sick, I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with a fever." He added, prodding his cheeks. Yep, he had a temperature to. Scientific deductions lead him to conclude he had a fever.

"Luke you're perfectly fine, you're just _embarrassed_." Clyde sighed, walking out of the bathroom shaking his head. Oh, so every time Luke had felt hot he'd been embarrassed. He supposed that made sense.

"So, holding Clyde's hand make me feel embarrassed." Luke stated to himself, inspecting his hand, no longer tingling from the touch. Hmm, it seemed he was getting closer to figuring out the puzzle. He just needed to expand his vocabulary and he'd be able to give Clyde a label. Good.

* * *

Clyde watched as a confused looking Luke emerged from the bathroom. Damn him for wearing a T-shirt to bed. Clyde had been hoping… no, he was **not** thinking those thoughts.

"Yo geekatron, how do these things work?" He demanded, pointing to the metal rectangle. Thank god he hadn't said 'Yo Luke, can you show me how the bed works?'. Even that'd be stretching Luke's social ignorance. But Luke seemed as clueless as ever and submissively came over to help.

"You just turn the hologramatic electronics sector round this way and-" Luke twisted some part of the metal rectangle, making a perfectly normal looking bed blink into life. "-there you go." He beamed, then went of to to that to his own rectangle.

"Cheers." Clyde nodded, trying not to sound in over his head. Alien technology really freaked him out sometimes. If this was a hologram, wouldn't he just fall through it? He prodded hesitantly at the bed, and his finger met resistance. My my, it seemed he'd been proved wrong. He sighed and flopped down on the bed, glad that the older dudes were readily ignoring them, for now anyway. Luke was sitting cross legged on the bed with his old fashioned mobile phone in his hands, his fingers tapping keys at an inhumanly fast pace.

"Who you texting?" Clyde asked, trying to sound indifferent. He was killing himself if it was bloody Maria again. Sure he liked the girl, but not as much as Luke seemed to. Grumble grumble.

"Oh, my mum. She's sent about ten texts asking if I've died yet." Luke laughed, looking up from his phone to look at Clyde, still typing.

"God it's so freaky when you do that." Clyde sighed in relief at the receiver of Luke's text. Luke just grinned naughtily, sending more shivers down Clyde's spine.

"I'm magic me."

"I know." Clyde commented, rolling over not bothering to answer when Luke asked what he'd meant. I'll let you figure it out genius.

It'd been two hours and Clyde _still _couldn't sleep. He needed to get over himself, so what if his object of affection (was he really calling Luke that already?) was sleeping two metres away from him. He couldn't do anything. No, it wouldn't matter even if he could, he wouldn't.

A small voice in the back of his head said he would. He told it to shut up and gagged it, rolling over in a huff.

Four hours.

Six.

By one in the morning, according to the little light up clock on his bedside table, Clyde welcomed in a groggy sleep, cursing himself all the way for letting his personal attractions get in the way of well needed sleep. He really, seriously hoped he wouldn't have one of_ those _dreams.


	8. We definetly hug to much

Luke reached out a hand, he didn't understand why it was trembling. All of the Older guys had raced downstairs to the breakfast hall, where they'd had dinner last night, leaving him alone after making sure he knew how much they hated him. Luke could still feel the eight shoulder shoved on his back. His pale fingers were shaking slightly, Clyde looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. He placed his forefinger on Clyde's cheek, then let his whole hand gently drop onto it. Clyde mumbled slightly udner his touch, Luke had deducted he had fairly good reactions, so he'd have to be careful not to wake him. But wasn't he meant to be waking Clyde up instead of… stroking him? Luke withdrew his hand sharply at the thought, feeling himself got hot at the thought. He reprimanded himself it wasn't from a fever, he was embarrassed. About touching Clyde's face.

But he'd done it before, he'd hugged him for god's sake, and that hadn't made him feel embarrassed. Or did it. Hesitantly, Luke lay down next to Clyde and wriggled into a hugging position, putting an arm over him. He felt warm yes, but not in an unpleasant, disturbing way. He felt safe as he inhaled the warm, woody scent that was coming off Clyde. A weight pressed against his shoulder, oh dear, now he couldn't escape. Why would he want to escape, he wasn't doing anything bad. Confident in the fact, he snuggled (he'd never used that word before…) in closer, inhaling deeper.

"Luke, I'll give you fifty bucks if you can explain what the hell you're doing without making me think you're on that side of the fence." The weight said, lifting itself off of his shoulder and sitting up. Luke sat up to, he didn't know what 'fence' Clyde was referring to, but he could give an explanation anyway.

"I was seeing if hugging you made me embarrassed." He answered, blinking wide eyed.

"And what did you find?" Clyde asked hoarsely, leaning in to look Luke squarely on. Luke blushed under his gaze and looked down, noticing Clyde's lack of shirt, he felt another need to analyse Clyde's body but decided against it. He pulled himself off of the bed, his head in a jumble.

"I was meant to wake you up; breakfast is probably going to finish soon." Luke said, checking that his Shirt wasn't creased. Clyde started going into the motions of getting dressed, and Luke politely looked away. It was rude to watch people get dressed; Rani had said so when he'd stumbled in on her changing T-shirts. Maria, his long distance best friend had said something similar so he was confident in the matter.

"Right, let's go then after such a weird wake up call." Clyde said, grabbing Luke's arm and dragging him after him roughly.

"Clyde, you need to stop doing that." Luke ordered with some dignity.

"Doing what?" Clyde rounded on him.

"Dragging me, it hurts." Luke insisted.

"Will it be okay if I do it more gently then?"

"Yes I suppose so." Luke sighed; gosh Clyde was being grumpy this morning, though he admitted he quite liked the feeling of being lightly pulled along by Clyde's hand. "Much better." Luke praised, smiling to try and cheer Clyde up. He noted on the dark circles under Clyde's eyes. Somehow Luke didn't think scolding Clyde for staying up was a good idea at that moment.

* * *

Despite being tired, Clyde had never had so much fun in his life. He whipped another Sphere into the air, hitting the target and smashing it over.

"Oh these are brilliant!" He exclaimed happily as he danced around, flicking the 'electric shock spheres' (quoting Luke) at the targets.

"This is bloody useless!" Screamed the guy next to Clyde, who was angrily prodding a more gun looking weapon.

"Um dude?"

"What?" the male roared, mildly resembling an angry bull.

"Might help if you tried the trigger instead of just poking it." The bull blinked for a moment, then registered what Clyde was saying and tested his advice out. The gun whirred for a few moments then released a little laser ray, which hit the target and made it wobble.

"….Thanks." the beefy guy muttered darkly. Clyde sniggered wickedly as he skimmed another Zappy ball (Clyde's term for the 'Electric shock spheres') at the target. Clyde one, Meat Heads zero.

* * *

"Dude you are awesome."

"Thank you." Luke nodded as he typed at a laptop, apparently programming something important. "Is there a reason for my 'awesome' status or have you taken to randomly praising me now?"

"Those Zappy balls-"

"Electric shock spheres."

"Whatever, they were freaking awesome!" Clyde raved, he had the feeling his excitement was bugging Luke, but he was still on an adrenaline rush.

"At least they cheered you up." Luke smiled gently, his soft face not matching his racing fingers. God that smile did things to Clyde's head, to many things, so Clyde just randomly blurted:

"I was cheered up this morning by you."

"what do you mean?"

"Well… I appreciated the hug." He had a smile on his face, but his insides were tense, was he admitting this?

"I thought it made you grumpy." Luke pouted, head tilted.

"I was annoyed that it ended." Clyde corrected gently. The two looked at each other for a moment, Clyde noted that Luke's fingers had stopped. The lingering gaze, oh gosh Clyde knew what was happening, as his stomach did summersaults and his cheeks flared. He just prayed no one was paying them much attention.

"I liked it to." Luke smiled sadly , holding Clyde's gaze a moment longer before returning to his laptop. There was a silence filled with unspoken words before a more confident smile placed on Luke's face.

"Try not to fall asleep again this time."

"But I have to prove to you that I don't snore!" and so they fell back into the use of comedy, but Clyde could still feel the thrill of that moment, as he remembered the tender edge to Luke's voice, the fear of his confession. But did Luke understand? He couldn't rely on Luke's slow social skills, but he hoped, he prayed, he was getting through to the geekoid. And he hoped even more that he returned his feelings. He had to admit it now, it was hard to deny with flushed cheeks and a racing heart.

He was in love with Luke Smith.


	9. I'm a Hero for You

After being disgraced by Luke, who had used his phone to record evidence that Clyde snored, Clyde had actually managed to sleep half decently by distracting himself with his mild anger. He found himself the next day joyfully aiming a small gun similar to a rifle. Pulling the trigger, confident in Luke's invention skills, he found himself feeling slightly deflated as a tiny laser shot started pelting towards the target. It would take about fifty of those just to dent it. Or at least, that was what Clyde reckoned until it exploded, taking out several targets around it.

"Jesus Christ!" The burly dude next to him yelled as his target was swamped in flames. Clyde ogled his gun, impressed. As the instructor ran up to inspect the damage, he mocked slipping it into his jacket.

"I am so taking this baby home." He grinned, winking at the instructor. For some bizzare and disappointing reason, the instructor didn't seem to find his antics so funny.

Doe-eyed and slumped, Clyde trudged his way up the hill back towards the house, spotting Luke balled up and sitting on one of the benches. Grinning automatically, he ran over and threw himself down next to his bestest buddy, prepared to enthral him with exciting tales about what had just happened.

"Have fun Clyde?" Luke asked in a small voice that was trying to be big. Clyde was frozen for a few seconds, registering, og course that would take time, he wasn't a super genius like Luke. But he wasn't purple like Luke either. Roughly, he shoved Luke's legs down so he was sitting normally on the bench, then straddled the smaller boy, grabbing the boy's head in his hands.

"What the hell is this?" He demanded, lightly prodding the tender area around Luke's eye which was slowly flushing purple, making the small genius wince.

"Clyde, it was my fault! Just please don't touch it!" Luke squeaked, his little voice sounding very little.

"What was your fault, 'cause having a black eye seems kinda like it was somebody else's fists fault." Clyde growled, studying the damage, careful no to touch the purpled skin.

"It was my fault, I was showing off!" Luke insisted, fidgeting below Clyde. It was at that point Clyde became very aware of their positioning. But he had more important things to do than worry about appearances.

"Luke, somehow I can't imagine you showing off about anything." He half snorted, Titling Luke's head up so he could see the injury in the light. Definitely fist sized.

"But they said I was!" Luke asserted, fidgeting again.

"What were you doing, just before they… they _hit_ you?" Clyde practically hissed in a now quietened voice.

"Um… working on an electronically, three dimensional projection map of the area. Then I said I'd finished and they said I was a show off and yeah…" Luke trailed off feebly, moving his hands around as if he wasn't sure where to put them. After all his lap was occupied.

"They hit you for _that_?"

"I think they've disliked me for a while."

"Bastards." Clyde pulled his face to Luke's. "Okay, we're going to find some way of getting those assholes back." Luke's lip trembled.

"How, fighting's prohibited and-"

"and nothing, it's direct confrontation time!" Clyde grinned, though his insides were as wobbly as a jelly fish.

"But they're older, stronger and-"

"Off we go!" Clyde half yelled, hopping off of… Luke's lap and onto the grass, tugging Luke on behind him. Then he remembered Luke's earlier complaints and loosened his grip. He could feel himself trembling, half from the contact with Luke and the anger. They'd hurt Luke. They'd damaged his pure, beautiful skin. Irrational was a fair description for his current state but he had to do something. After all, it was for Luke.

* * *

AN: :D thank you for the reviews, they encouraged me to bother continuing. This does lead somewhere eventually… I hope!


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